St Gabriel Catholic Community, Liverpool, U.K.

October seems to be ordination time for the ECC UK. Last year Fr Nick and, on the 1st this year, Fr Tom Armstrong. A priestly ordination is a multi-faceted occasion, a mixture of joy, celebration, solemnity, ceremonial, spirituality and fear. “Fear?” I hear you ask – and I repeat it – fear.

As a bishop I have always been conscious of the awesome responsibility that lies behind passing on the priesthood. I have no power but to serve and I give no power but to serve. How terrible it would be for me to give that power for the wrong reasons or to the wrong person.

Equally it is a moment of fear for the candidate – are they doing the right thing? Is this truly God’s will and not theirs? How can they live up to the responsibility?

Well, at Father Tom’s ordination these fears were totally outweighed by a sense of “rightness” that allowed the solemn ceremony to be filled with joy and celebration. Time had been given to Tom’s preparation and now God’s will was to be fulfilled. How can I be so sure of this? Well, I will share a moment of intimacy – Tom’s own choice of readings and music were behind my homily. I started by talking of the “blessedness” of the prophet Baruch and the fact that all Jewish liturgy begins with praise of God in that blessedness. Then I went on to tell that all my preparation was pointless as the words of one hymn had said it all in the final line of the refrain.

The hymn was “I the Lord of sea and sky” and the line was “I will hold your people in my heart.” Looking directly at Tom I said that this is the essence of priestly service. His smile was the moment of rightness that said we understood one another.

Such is priesthood, such is service, such is the love of the Lord, to hold his people in our hearts.

Ad Multos Annos, Father Tom.